CULTURE OP THE PINE- APPLE. 431 



In purchasing pines it is most important to know something also if 

 possible of the previous history of the plants purchased. The clean 

 stocks of a successful pine-grower are worth their weight in gold. 

 Weak dirty plants are only fit for the rubbish-heap. 



Good growers cultivate only the best varieties in each class, and by 

 the double process of constant selection and superior culture, their 

 plants are freighted as it were at starting with all the elements of 

 future success. No operation within the range of horticulture re- 

 quires more judgment, skill, and caution than the selection of the 

 right varieties of pines, in the best possible condition to start with. 

 Cleanliness and sturdiness are the chief desiderata. To begin with 

 weak, drawn, dirty plants, is to court vexation, failure, and defeat. 

 To the novice we would say, get a pine-grower in whom you can trust 

 to select your plants. 



Age of the Fruiting-plants. In nothing have modern pine-growers so 

 much improved upon those of the past as in the saving of -time. From 

 twelve to eighteen months from the suckers most fruit are now cut. 

 Strong suckers alone are chosen to start with, and they are pushed on 

 without let or hindrance until the fruit is perfected ; or if checked at 

 all, it is simply to throw them into a fruiting state. Every root and 

 leaf formed is carefully treasured, and becomes the nucleus for other 

 and stronger ones. In one word, pines are now grown by express: 

 rapidity and strength are the main ideas worked wp into a rich harvest 

 of luxurious fruit by modern pine-growers. 



The Pot versus the Open-bed System. Nearly all our best growers 

 lean to pot culture. The plants are more manageable, and more fruit 

 can be cut from a given space. Even those who plant out their fruit- 

 ing-plants grow the successional ones in pots. The plan practised at 

 Meudon was to grow the plants in pots in winter, and plant them out 

 on dung-beds for the summer. They were planted out in March and 

 potted again in October. The fruiting-plants were finally planted out 

 in a bed of ten inches of peat in March, and perfected their fruit in 

 that position. At Versailles and other places in France, and at the 

 Royal Gardens at Munich, a similar system is adopted. One of the 

 chief advantages claimed for this system is that suckers are produced in 

 all stages of growth, and that consequently fruit may be cut at all 

 seasons of the year. From pines planted out in low pots at Munich, 

 ripe fruit were cut every month for a period of five years. In several 

 French gardens the suckers are not potted at all. The suckers pro- 

 duced by the fruiting-plants of the previous season are allowed to 

 remain on the old stools till the following March, when they are taken 

 off and planted out in a gentle hotbed. About the month of August 

 they are removed to their fruiting quarters, and planted out in borders 

 of earth about eighteen inches deep, placed over a Lotbed of dung or 

 leaves Good results are thus obtained in France, and it is difficult to 

 see why, with the aid of hot water for bottom heat, the best soil, 

 abundant surface-manuring, and earthing up, a greater weight of fruit 

 might not be grown in a limited space and time by this mode than 

 by any other. The source of bottom heat might be a tank of water or 



